ASAP Ferg resurrects his Trap Lord persona in the mind-melting video for his new single, “Value.” As the Harlem rapper insists that you “Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me now,” the jittery video rattles through clips of Ferg’s greatest hits, flashing shots of his various fashion shoots intercut with a wildly edited performance sequence.

Mid-way through the video, though, Ferg takes advantage of an intermission in the goth-trap insanity to comment on the current conditions of the coronavirus crisis not being shown in mainstream newscasts. As he delivers a somber voiceover, the camera rests on empty store shelves, homeless people sleeping on sidewalks, and shut-down storefronts. “The internet brought us closer — and closed stores,” he intones. “You’re just like me. I’m just like you. Look at me.”

“Value” is Ferg’s first new track of 2020, following his 2019 Floor Seats EP, which contained the singles “Pups,” two versions of “Wigs,” and “Floor Seats.” The EP was followed by the Big Sean collaboration “Bezerk,” which the duo performed at the 2019 VMAs, but Ferg’s been mostly quiet since then, aside from closing 2019 with the “Jet Lag” video. The fact that he’s once again releasing new music and calling himself Trap Lord suggests that a new release may well be on the horizon.

Watch the “Value” video above.

Quibi, the 10-minutes-or-less content vehicle tied directly to your cell phone, will start to lose the second half of that distinction sometime in May. Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg told Reuters on Wednesday that the application will start offering options to watch content via television screen, a departure from the company’s mobile-only business model.

The news came in a Reuters report that said downloads of the streaming platform are nearing 3 million, up from a paltry start that was a fraction of the initial support Disney+ received from content-hungry users. Katzenberg said 2.7 million people have downloaded Quibi since its April 6 launch, and some of them will get the option to watch that quick bite content on much larger screens:

Katzenberg also said that some Quibi users will have the ability to cast the service from mobile phones to their televisions starting in May. Some early viewers had complained that they were unable to watch Quibi programming on their TVs.

Quibi originally had been promoted for on-the-go viewing. Executives stuck with their launch plan even though it came when audiences were sheltering at home to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

As noted in the Reuters story, the Quibi model of short form content on mobile phones is severely limited by people not commuting to and from work or even leaving their homes amid the pandemic and the need to practice social distancing. So it’s interesting that a platform with a philosophy meant to differentiate it from other streaming services has immediately pivoted to make itself more like the competition.

What’s interesting more, all the content was meant to be watched on phones, and some screeners of Quibi content came in different aspect ratios to reflect that. In other words, it’s entirely unclear how much of this quick content will be optimized for far bigger screens, which perhaps is why the function will be rolled out slowly. We’ll know more about what Quibi shows look like on the big screen once we can actually see it, but it will be interesting to see if this news gets more people to give Quibi a go while the offer for a free trial in its first few months still stands.

(Via Reuters)

Hundreds of people gathered at the Arizona State Capitol on Monday to protest Governor Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order that closed non-essential businesses in March.

The protesters waved pro-Trump flags and held up banners that read, “Give me liberty or give me COIVD-19,” “Cure is worse than the virus,” and “Make America work again.”

Apparently, no one told the protesters that Donald Trump is in favor of the stay-at-home order and that he’s also doesn’t really like liberty.

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One of the most powerful images taken at the rally was of Lauren Leander, an intensive care nurse at a hospital in Phoenix. In the photo, she stands firmly in her protective gear as a protester looks like he wants to whack her over the head with ol’ glory. Another photo of her and her colleagues standing strong in the face of anti-vaxxers is striking as well.

Leander had the day off from work at the hospital so she decided to show up at the rally to represent the workers who are risking their lives on the front lines. “That was the kind of action we could take against something like this,” Leander said according to Arizona Central.

Leander and a handful of medical professionals stood strongly and silently at the rally while an angry mob yelled viscous attacks at them. The protesters accused Leander and her colleagues of not really being nurses and claimed they were possibly abortionists or dental assistants instead.

That’s probably because if the protesters believed they were berating front-line healthcare workers then they’d have to accept the fact that they are terrible people. Who the hell has any right to scream at a nurse who’s saving lives during a pandemic?

“The noise was deafening,” Leander said according to ABC 15. “But we were there to be a voice for our patients and the immunocompromised and the people who are sick with COVID that would be out there fighting with us if they could asking people to follow the stay at home rules.”

“It doesn’t matter if you believe in the virus or not. I’m going to take care of you one way or the other,” she said. “It was sad to see people throw insults that number one didn’t make sense and number two didn’t align with us as health workers,” she said.

Although she endured abuse at the rally, the photos of her standing in defiance went viral and she has received messages of support from people across the world.

“I feel proud because it’s not just me. It’s me and it’s my doctors and all the health care workers that would’ve been out there with me if we could’ve had time to rally a bigger group together,” said Leander.

Arizona governor Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order is in place until April 30, and there has yet to be an announcement on what will happen May 1.

Leander and her colleagues’ bold stance in the face of the protesters showed the world that when people fight social distancing, they are directly attacking America’s healthcare workers and most vulnerable citizens.

Lauren Leander is a hero and everyone should know her name.

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It’s been two years since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson squared off in “The Match,” a pay-per-view one-on-one golf event on Thanksgiving weekend 2018 in Las Vegas that Mickelson won in extra holes, and with the golf schedule currently pushed back to mid-June, a second match has been in the works.

This time, there will be no PPV price tag, though, as they will play for charity and broadcast it on TNT, while also bringing in Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for a two-on-two match play event to add even more name-brand cache. According to Bleacher Report and The Action Network‘s Darren Rovell, Turner has confirmed “The Match: Champions For Charity” will take place sometime in May, with the 15th and 24th as possible dates, per Rovell.

There were reports last month that they were working towards an agreement, but needed the PGA Tour’s blessing to sign off on it. That appears to have happened, likely due to the Tour now having plans for its future, and things are being finalized now. Where they play remains to be determined, but Tiger’s home course of Medalist Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida is a strong possibility, per Rovell.

The teams are unknown, as Rovell reports Woods-Brady v. Mickelson-Manning, which contradicts initial reports of Woods-Manning v. Mickelson-Brady. The latter makes more sense given Woods and Manning have teamed in pro-ams in the past, but whatever the case, there will be some team match play format. The details on what kind of match format they’ll play remains to be seen as well. I’m rooting for foursomes rather than fourballs, because alternate shot would make this way more fun and put way more pressure on the two football legends.

Kevin Garnett played himself in the film Uncut Gems, the acclaimed 2019 release by the Safdie brothers that saw the future Hall of Fame inductee receive praise for his role. The gist of the movie is that Adam Sandler’s character, an all-time degenerate gambler named Howard, runs a jewelry shop. Garnett comes in, he is shown a rare black opal, and once he decides that the opal plays a role in his success on the basketball court in the 2012 Eastern Conference Semifinals against Philadelphia, KG tries to win it at auction.

The entire movie rocks and you should see it immediately, if only for meme literacy purposes and Mike Francesa’s cameo. But beyond that, there’s an upcoming fundraiser tied to the film — and a host of other movies in the A24 universe — that puts Garnett’s jersey on the auction block.

While other auctions are currently ongoing, the Uncut Gems auction begins at noon on May 4. According to Variety, the Garnett jersey from the movie will be available, with proceeds benefitting the Queens Community House in New York. Unfortunately, while the opal is not available for auction, other items like the jewel-encrusted Furby from the movie are available.

Garnett was not the first choice for the role — the film was in development for years, and names like Amar’e Stoudemire, Kobe Bryant, and Joel Embiid were linked to it for some time — but he ended up earning widespread praise for his performance.

Earth Day 2020 is shaping up to be the best earth day in the 50 years. Not for humans, of course. We’re in a bad way. But there are jellyfish and dolphins in the Venice canals, bears roaming Yellowstone and Yosemite in record numbers, and emissions have plummeted worldwide. It’s tough to argue that the planet seems to generally enjoy seeing less of us.

Of course, the same pandemic that has driven us indoors has absolutely laid waste to the national economy. Businesses large and small are collapsing and entire industries are begging the U.S. government for relief. In the process, the cracks in how certain economic systems are constructed have grown increasingly visible — with perhaps the easiest example being the amount of money that airlines spend on stock buybacks and dividends to benefit investors, rather than keeping enough cash on hand to build a financial firewall in case of a catastrophe like this one. The enormity of the wealth gap and the severe financial exposure of millions upon millions of Americans have also both been particularly obvious since the start of the pandemic, reminding us that poor distribution of financial resources is actually a bad thing for the nation on the whole.

A third piece of the “what a terrifying fascinating Earth Day this is” puzzle is less dramatic. It’s found in how we’ve spent our time indoors. People are learning to bake bread and make drip coffee. They’re pulling out the sewing machine and using YouTube to learn how to mend clothes. Bean recipes are getting passed around and there’s been a dramatic spike in home gardens. The joke that Americans have lost the spirit of resilience we were once globally famous for seems to have been revealed as false. We’re still do-it-yourself-types at our core, we’ve just been too busy working ourselves to the bone to have any time for hobbies.

Watching the planet thrive with fewer humans around, seeing the flaws in our economic system, and witnessing a return to self-reliance are three downstream effects of the pandemic that feel particularly relevant on this, the 50th Earth Day. Three distinct elements of this catastrophe that help us recognize how we’ve been failing the planet and ourselves. Three threads that can weave together to help us create a more sustainable, ecologically sound cultural tapestry when this is all over.

While a proliferation of bears and bees is lovely (and vital to our global ecosystem), it’s the newfound transparency on all sides of our economy that is perhaps the most vital in motivating us to change our habits out of the shutdown. Much has been made about how the Wall Street investment model (which forces all businesses to chase constant growth at all costs until they can’t grow any further) has pushed airlines to flounder when the quarantine hit; but on the flip side, the success of working from home and boom in digital meetups may have taught us that much of the travel we thought was essential actually isn’t. It’s nice to imagine a world where we travel less for work and save our personal carbon allotments for the chance to eat parmesan fresh from the wheel in Italy or surf in Sri Lanka or dance and do yoga with hippies in Costa Rica.

Would that mean smaller airlines and fewer routes? Yep. That’s one cost of making a greener world that we rarely actually address — the need to reduce.

Meanwhile, our widespread return to “making shit” — whether it’s sourdough bread or needlepoint throw pillows — a trend that had been booming for the better part of a decade and has gone stratospheric during the pandemic, might just remind us that we don’t need to consume as much as artificially deflated prices propped up by unsustainable supply chains have tricked us into believing over the decades. From fast fashion to food that has traveled thousands of miles just to get to our local markets, maybe this shutdown really will help us all reevaluate our spending. Maybe value will begin to trump price (though this will be hard with people also struggling financially) and we’ll see a new era of conscious consumerism with a constant sustainability focus.

The absence of purchases over the past five weeks has reminded us that our collective purchasing power is huge. The question will be whether or not we can harness it to work for the betterment of the planet. Whether we can vote with our dollars to force polluting industries to change. If not now, when?

In the tweet above Elon Musk cuts to the heart of one of the toughest-to-swallow pills of this pandemic. Some industries don’t deserve to be revived or helped in their continued destruction of the earth. Meanwhile, some sectors overexpanded. Some permanent shutdowns, while sad, will reflect necessary market corrections. Part of “going green” has always been about consuming less, as hard as that is to stomach. If we do that, certain businesses will indeed fail.

With Earth Day upon us and fields of wildflowers soon to bloom around the country (without people trampling them), we have a chance to treat COVID-19 as a call to action. A chance to preserve the more-pristine planet that sheltering in place revealed by supporting green energy, tech, and policies. A chance to cut our personal carbon footprints. A chance to celebrate local — whether that means planting a garden at home or taking the train to a town a few hours away for vacation.

With the world hitting the pause button in a major way over the past month, the door is wide for us to change everything, from how we eat to how we travel to what we wear. Meaning that we could potentially do better. If we’re willing to heed the lessons flying at us, that is. If we can’t learn from our mistakes — especially when they’re so easy to see right now — we’ll be destined to repeat them.

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College football, like other sports, faces an uncertain immediate future as spring practices were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s sent coaches and players to work from home like the rest of us and prepare for a possible season under very different circumstances than they are accustomed to.

South Carolina coach Will Muschamp is adjusting to life at home, where he hasn’t spent this much time in 25 years since he started coaching, but beyond adjusting to holding meetings via Zoom like everyone else, he wanted to find a way to help healthcare workers in the community and make sure they knew they were appreciated. As such, he partnered with Marco’s Pizza franchisee Joe Walker to launch Feed Our Heroes, a foundation formed with the Central Carolina Community Foundation to feed healthcare workers at six hospitals in the area — with hopes to expand to more — twice a week (they currently have raised funding for about two months worth of feedings at the hospitals).

Last week, Muschamp and Walker spoke with Uproxx Sports about how they came together to create this foundation, why it was important to them, life in quarantine as a football coach and pizza restaurant owner, how Muschamp is still preparing his team for the season, what he’s told NFL teams about top Draft prospect Javon Kinlaw, and more.

How did Feed Our Heroes come together and why it was so important to both of you to start this program?

Will Muschamp: Well, personally, Carol and I were talkin’, this is two weeks ago now, just about the healthcare workers — the doctors, the nurses, the medical staffs, the first responders — about how they’re on the front lines right now. They’re in the line of fire, they’re saving lives and stopping the spread of this virus, and what can we do to help. We do have some means financially to be able help and do some things, and I just started thinking about it and I’ve known Joe since we’ve been here in Columbia, and he’s a go get ‘em kind of guy. Very active in our community and cares about our community, so I just called him up with the idea of Marco’s Pizza — and you think about the number of hours these people are working, to be able to have them feed them and taken care of as best we can. It’s a very small gesture but something to help and to just say thank you. Joe ran with it from there, I just kind of called him up and donated some money to hopefully help out.

Joe Walker: Yeah, and to pick up from there, when Will reached out with his and Carol’s idea of donating a significant amount of money to feed healthcare workers across our region, you know, Marco’s Pizza already being the official pizza of the Gamecocks already had a great platform and great relationship in place to execute on an even broader plan. I suggested to Will that we use his funding not just as a one time feeding, but to seed a foundation through the Central Carolina Community Foundation here in South Carolina. Thereby we can perpetuate the feeding and allow Marco’s and potentially other restaurants in the region to continue feeding these healthcare workers and really use their dollars at the beginning of a much larger program rather than a one-time opportunity.

What has the response been and what have y’all been able to do so far, you mention you’re about a week in, what has the response been from the South Carolina community?

Walker: Overall there’s been a lot of support from the University of South Carolina from the various personalities with the program, but more important from across the community you’re seeing it gain momentum. We’ve got a local singer/songwriter, he lives in Nashville now, but Patrick Davis who’s already hosted one tele-concert and is putting on another one this weekend in support of Coach Muschamp, which has been fun to watch. We’ve seen individual donations come into the foundation and thanks to Coach and Carol and their generosity and foresight, we’ve already seen $30,000 come in which should allow for the continuation of our feeding at hospital campuses. We’re now looking at six, seven, eight weeks of continuous feeding at this point.

Muschamp: Just to be at the supermarket and have people come up and say thank you, cause my dad’s a doctor or my mom’s a nurse, they’re going through this and people have no idea. When Joe and I delivered the first deliveries to Richland Prisma, to sit there and see those nurses and how appreciative they were. I’ve had multiple healthcare people reach out to me on Twitter and say thank you for what you’re doing. It just makes you feel good and it makes them feel very appreciated of the job that they’re doing, and that’s the biggest thing for me.

Being a football coach at a big program, particularly in the South, you have a significant platform and influence. When there’s something like this that affects the community so much, do you feel a responsibility in a time like this to use that to inspire some good?

Muschamp: Absolutely. I think any time we can positively affect our community, you need to be able to do it, and using the University of South Carolina and our football program and our athletic program, there’s no doubt about it that can get you a great opportunity to reach a lot of people and make a difference. That’s what it’s all about, making a difference right here in the midlands, and I’m really excited we are able to form this thing and really appreciate Joe and his efforts to make this thing work.

For you, coach, what is the day-to-day like right now for you? Everyone’s going through having to work from home and those changes. For you, how do you navigate trying to stay prepared for a season while at home?

Muschamp: Well there’s still a lot of work. We’re working on ourselves. We got through about five days of spring practice, so I’ve reviewed that film several times [laughs]. We’re working on opponents for next year. We have position meetings five days a week where we’re on Zoom with our players and going through our installations and different concepts we’re teaching them from anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour a day. We staff meet twice a week for about an hour to go over the recruiting board and any updates on the football team we need as an entire staff.

So, there’s a lot for us. Recruiting is year-round, that’s 24/7, so you’re constantly doing that. Evaluation of film, contacting — actually April 15, today, is the first day we could call the Class of ’21 as far as calling ‘em, you could text ‘em. There’s a lot going on, and I’m getting a lot of honey-do’s around the house. I changed a lightbulb for the first time in probably 20 years today. That was a first [laughs]. There’s a lot going on I didn’t know was happening at home, I can tell you that.

I was going to ask when the last time you spent this much time at home.

Muschamp: Well, I’ve been coaching for about 25 years, so 25 years.

Joe, the pizza business is somewhat uniquely prepared in this time of takeout and delivery only, but what have y’all had to do in terms of ensuring safe practices and preparations in the kitchen and delivery during this time?

Walker: Certainly, so Marco’s corporate has done a fantastic job tracking all the mandated stipulations whether it’s the CDC or FDA, and has kept its franchisees abreast of all those policies throughout this process by way of weekly calls to make sure we’re implementing all appropriate policies for the safety of our employees, which is paramount to us, but also thinking about the consumer. Because while we’re uniquely positioned to execute on this type of model, this is a unique time for everyone and we want to make sure we’re going above and beyond what’s required to ensure the safety of our food, our employees and our customers.

Along with that, this program is obviously about helping healthcare workers and letting them know we appreciate them and are thinking of them, but also helps your employees and food workers who I think the world is recognizing as being so important to getting people food and keeping folks fed. What would you tell folks about the efforts of kitchen staff and delivery staff during all of this?

Walker: I would tell them that it’s monumental. It’s an example that I take pride in, the pride of ownership. Our employees take pride in the store level. The pride I have in the brand, Marco’s Pizza, where I have the opportunity to engage in non-profit activities at the store level and allows us to give back to the community that we serve. It really is inspiring to watch the Marco’s community come together in a time of crisis.

Last one for you, coach. The NFL Draft is coming up and you’ve got a few guys that’ll get their name called, particularly Javon Kinlaw. Have you had contact with teams asking about him, and what have you been telling them about what they’d be getting in that young man?

Muschamp: Yeah, I’ve probably talked to the whole NFL, whether it’s a general manager, assistant, or head coach. I mean, the guy, I think his best football is ahead of him. His incremental improvements from Year 1 to Year 3 was pretty large. I mean he stepped on campus at 345 (pounds) and he’s now down to about 295 and in the best shape of his life going into his senior year. He played the way you’re supposed to play as a senior, but I think his best football’s ahead of him. His block recognition continues to improve, he’s a very unusual combination of length and power and athleticism. But that length and power, you don’t find that as far as inside players.

Star Wars, what a concept!

Variety reports that Leslye Headland, the co-creator of Netflix’s Russian Doll, is working on a Star Wars series for Disney+. Little is known about the plot, other than “sources say it will be a female-centric series that takes place in a different part of the Star Wars timeline than other projects.” Headland, who also wrote and directed Bachelorette and 2015’s underrated Sleeping with Other People, is attached as showrunner and writer.

There’s no word on casting yet, but the time is now (or whenever it premieres) for Natasha Lyonne to be in Star Wars. Either that, or Columbo.

The still-untitled series joins two other Star Wars projects currently in development for Disney’s streaming service: the Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor and a Rogue One prequel following Diego Luna’s character Cassian Andor. That’s on top of The Mandalorian, which was recently renewed for season three; The Clone Wars animated series (series finale on May 4, a.k.a. Star Wars Day); and the Legends of the Hidden Temple-indebted Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, hosted by Ahmed Best.

By 2022, Disney+ is going to be all Star Wars and Marvel shows. Not that I’m complaining, necessarily. It beats the current strategy of Baby Yoda and not being Quibi.

(Via Variety)